The Oral Delivery System of Modified GLP-1 by Probiotics for T2DM.

The glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is a peptide with incretin activity and plays an important role in glycemic control as well as the improvement of insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, the short half-life of the native GLP-1 in circulation poses difficulties for clinical practice. To improve the proteolytic stability and delivery properties of GLP-1, a protease-resistant modified GLP-1 (mGLP-1) was constructed with added arginine to ensure the structural integrity of the released mGLP-1 in vivo. The model probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum WCFS1 was chosen as the oral delivery vehicle with controllable endogenous genetic tools driven for mGLP-1 secretory constitutive expression. The feasibility of our design was explored in db/db mice which showed an improvement in diabetic symptoms related to decreased pancreatic glucagon, elevated pancreatic ß-cell proportion, and increased insulin sensitivity. In conclusion, this study provides a novel strategy for the oral delivery of mGLP-1 and further probiotic transformation.

CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing in vancomycin-producing strain Amycolatopsis keratiniphila.

Amycolatopsis is an important source of diverse valuable bioactive natural products. The CRISPR/Cas-mediated gene editing tool has been established in some Amycolatopsis species and has accomplished the deletion of single gene or two genes. The goal of this study was to develop a high-efficient CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing system in vancomycin-producing strain A. keratiniphila HCCB10007 and enhance the production of vancomycin by deleting the large fragments of ECO-0501 BGC. By adopting the promoters of gapdhp and ermE*p which drove the expressions of scocas9 and sgRNA, respectively, the all-in-one editing plasmid by homology-directed repair (HDR) precisely deleted the single gene gtfD and inserted the gene eGFP with the efficiency of 100%. Furthermore, The CRISPR/Cas9-mediated editing system successfully deleted the large fragments of cds13-17 (7.7 kb), cds23 (12.7 kb) and cds22-23 (21.2 kb) in ECO-0501 biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC) with high efficiencies of 81%-97% by selecting the sgRNAs with a suitable PAM sequence. Finally, a larger fragment of cds4-27 (87.5 kb) in ECO-0501 BGC was deleted by a dual-sgRNA strategy. The deletion of the ECO-0501 BGCs revealed a noticeable improvement of vancomycin production, and the mutants, which were deleted the ECO-0501 BGCs of cds13-17, cds22-23 and cds4-27, all achieved a 30%-40% increase in vancomycin yield. Therefore, the successful construction of the CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing system and its application in large fragment deletion in A. keratiniphila HCCB10007 might provide a powerful tool for other Amycolatopsis species.

Synthesis of a Rare Water-Soluble Silver(II)/Porphyrin and Its Multifunctional Therapeutic Effect on Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Porphyrin derivatives are popular photodynamic therapy (PDT) agents; however, their typical insolubility in water has made it challenging to separate cells of organisms in a liquid water environment. Herein, a novel water-soluble 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-methoxyphenyl-3-sulfonatophenyl) porphyrin (TMPPS) was synthesized with 95% yield by modifying the traditional sulfonation route. The reaction of TMPPS with AgNO3 afforded AgTMPPS an unusual Ag(II) oxidation state (97% yield). The free base and Ag(II) complex were characterized by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-mass spectroscopy, and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance, Fourier-transform infrared, UV-vis, fluorescence, and X-ray photolectron spectroscopies. Upon 460 nm laser irradiation, AgTMPPS generated a large amount of 1O2, whereas no ⦁OH was detected. Antibacterial experiments on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) revealed that the combined action of AgⅡ ions and PDT could endow AgTMPPS with a 100% bactericidal ratio for highly concentrated MRSA (108 CFU/mL) at a very low dosage (4 µM) under laser irradiation at 360 J/cm2. Another PDT response was demonstrated by photocatalytically oxidizing 1,4-dihydronicotinamide adenine dinucleotide to NAD+ with AgTMPPS. The structural features of the TMPPS and AgTMPPS molecules were investigated by density functional theory quantum chemical calculations to demonstrate the efficient chemical and photodynamical effects of AgTMPPS for non-invasive antibacterial therapy.

A new aminoglycoside etimicin shows low nephrotoxicity and ototoxicity in zebrafish embryos.

Aminoglycoside antibiotics are widely used for many life-threatening infections. The use of aminoglycosides is often comprised by their deleterious side effects to the kidney and inner ear. A novel semisynthetic antibiotic, etimicin, has good antimicrobial activity against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. But its toxicity profile analysis is still lacking. In the present study, we compared the in vivo toxic effects of three aminoglycosides, gentamicin, amikacin, and etimicin, in zebrafish embryos. We examined the embryotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, and the damage to the neuromast hair cells. Our results revealed that etimicin and amikacin exhibit more developmental toxicities to the young embryos than gentamicin. But at subtoxic doses, etimicin and amikacin show significantly reduced toxicities towards kidney and neuromast hair cells. We further demonstrated that fluorescently conjugated aminoglycosides (gentamicin-Texas red [GTTR], amikacin-Texas red [AMTR], and etimicin-Texas red [ETTR]) all enter the hair cells properly. Inside the hair cells, gentamicin, not etimicin and amikacin, displays robust reactive oxygen species generation and induces apoptosis. Our data support that the different intracellular cytotoxicity underlies the different ototoxicity of the three aminoglycosides and that etimicin is a new aminoglycoside with reduced risk of nephrotoxicity and ototoxicity.

Micro/Nanorobot: A Promising Targeted Drug Delivery System.

Micro/nanorobot, as a research field, has attracted interest in recent years. It has great potential in medical treatment, as it can be applied in targeted drug delivery, surgical operation, disease diagnosis, etc. Differently from traditional drug delivery, which relies on blood circulation to reach the target, the designed micro/nanorobots can move autonomously, which makes it possible to deliver drugs to the hard-to-reach areas. Micro/nanorobots were driven by exogenous power (magnetic fields, light energy, acoustic fields, electric fields, etc.) or endogenous power (chemical reaction energy). Cell-based micro/nanorobots and DNA origami without autonomous movement ability were also introduced in this article. Although micro/nanorobots have excellent prospects, the current research is mainly based on in vitro experiments; in vivo research is still in its infancy. Further biological experiments are required to verify in vivo drug delivery effects of micro/nanorobots. This paper mainly discusses the research status, challenges, and future development of micro/nanorobots.

Role of two 5-aminolevulinic acid biosynthetic pathways in heme and secondary metabolite biosynthesis in Amycolatopsis orientalis.

Analysis of the Amycolatopsis orientalis genome revealed that two genes, hemA1 and hemA2, belonging to divergent pathways, were involved in the biosynthesis of 5-aminolevulinic acid. The roles of hemA1 and hemA2 were elucidated via genetic manipulation and metabolite analysis. The disruption of hemA1, encoding the glutamyl-tRNAGlu reductase of the C5 pathway, was essential for cell growth and is used for heme synthesis. Overexpression of hemA1 resulted in elevated vancomycin and ECO-0501 production in Amycolatopsis orientalis, and it was also effective in increasing the production of daptomycin and natamycin in other Streptomycetes. The disruption of hemA2 indicated that it encodes the 5-aminolevulinic acid synthase of the Shemin pathway, serving as a key enzyme for the synthesis of the precursor aminohydroxycyclopentenone unit of ECO-0501. However, hemA2 disruption could not be complemented by the addition of 5-aminolevulinic acid or by the expression of hemA2 outside of the ECO-0501 gene cluster. The synthesis of ECO-0501 was only restored by the insertion of hemA2 at its original locus. The hemA2 gene could partly complement the hemA1 deficiency. Overexpression of hemA1, a key gene from the heme biosynthetic pathway, is proposed here as a new approach to improve the production of secondary metabolites in bacteria, whereas hemA2 plays different roles depending on its pattern of expression.

Discovery of the New Plant Growth-Regulating Compound LYXLF2 Based on Manipulating the Halogenase in Amycolatopsis orientalis.

Analysis of the Amycolatopsis orientalis HCCB10007 genome revealed new gene clusters involved in natural product biosynthesis that were not associated with the production of known compounds. Halogenases are a type of tailoring enzymes that are usually found within these secondary gene clusters. In this study, we identified an indole-type halometabolite 6-chrolo-1H-indole-3-carboxamide, named LYXLF2, by whole genome mining and metabolic profiling of a flavin-dependent halogenase mutant. LYXLF2 is a new plant growth-regulating compound that promotes root elongation. The results of this study demonstrated that the special gene knock-out/comparative metabolic profiling approach provides a powerful tool for the discovery of novel natural products by genome mining.

A new phenyldilactone from Lespedeza cuneata.

A new phenyldilactone, maysedilactone B (1), together with twenty known compounds, were isolated from the aerial parts of Lespedeza cuneata. The structural elucidation of the isolated compounds was primarily based on HR-ESI-MS, IR and 1D and 2D NMR analyses. Compounds 1-8 and 15-21 were tested for cytotoxicity against four human tumor cell lines (A549, HCT116, SKOV3, and HepG2) using MTT method in vitro, while no significant activities were observed for the evaluated compounds.

[A new sesquiterpenoid from fungus Colletotrichum sp. and its cytotoxicity].

A novel sesquiterpenoid (1) and three known compounds identified as isoaltenuene (2), altenuene (3), and alternariol 4, 10-O-dimethyl ether (4), were isolated in our investigation of the cytotoxic constituents from solid cultures of the endophytic fungus Colletotrichum sp. The structures of these compounds were elucidated through spectroscopic data analysis. All compounds exhibited cytotoxic activity against lung cancer cell line A549, breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 and pancreatic cancer cell line PANC-1. Compound 4 could induce the PANC-1 cells inflation or death, but couldn't induce apoptosis at the IC50 of 60.2 microg x mL(-1).

A rapid fluorescent screening method for cellular sensitivity to anti-cancer compound.

The tetrazolium salts (MTT, XTT, MTS, WST) based colorimetric assay or resazurin based fluorimetric assay are currently typical methods for cell sensitivity determination to anticancer compounds. We presented here a new rapid method for this purpose. This method uses a fluorescent dye named DCFH-DA which is previously taken as a intracellular probe for measurement of H(2)O(2) levels within a cell. The application basis for this method lies in two facts: the membrane permeable feature of the final metabolite of DCFH-DA inside a cell, and the linearity relationship between cell number and H(2)O(2) level. The results showed that there was a perfect association between cell number and fluorescent intensity determined by the DCFH-DA method, no matter whether using resuspended or adherent cells, and further 50% concentration of inhibition (IC(50)) comparison between data obtained by DCFH-DA method or MTT method using a positive known anticancer compound Baicalin showed that there were no significant differences in cellular sensitivity determination to compound Baicalin though there existed a relatively higher coefficient of variation of IC(50) by the DCFH-DA method than that by the MTT method. Thus our data indicate that DCFH-DA might not only be a fine reagent for determination of H(2)O(2) levels in cells but also an ideal fluorescent dye for cellular sensitivity test of anti-cancer compounds, and may be suitable for primary high-throughput drugs screening.